Tuesday, July 4, 2017

"FREE MARS!" is ready as it is, but I've decided to take a couple steps back and give it a chance to breathe.

I have a theory: patient never finishes. Impulse gets it done.
Or as my Dad always put it, "Do something...even if it's wrong."

Still...

Anyway, I love the story as is. There are a few changes I want to make at the end. I sort of have the villain blurting out his nefarious plans. Instead, I can break the scene into two parts, where Sceeter figures out what he's doing and challenges him and only then does the villain blurt out his nefarious plans. Other than that, I'm ready to go. So sometime in the next week or so, probably.Here's the kicker. I think there's a novel here, so I'm going to go ahead and expand it. There is a tradition of short stories and novellas being expanded into novels, so I don't think I'm breaking any rules here. The short story is complete in itself, but can also be expanded.The whole thing has really grabbed me, and plot elements are spilling out of my subconscious, so apparently that's what I'm going to be writing for the next couple of months.I never know until I'm finished on one project what is going to grab me. But when something excites me, I go with it.

4 comments:

Why children? Why not robots? Are they robotic children? Or child robots? AI spawned in the depths of Martian radicalism? Children are a PITAs. Where do the children come from? Are they grown in vats? Where are all the parents? Are they stolen from Earth? Grown in guerrilla forces asteroid cults?

This mineral - rather like Pandora's Unobtainium, no? What are its special properties that make it useful, coveted?

Where are the MarsCorp heavies? The armed forces? If Earth is dependent on MarsCorp, wouldn't they have a astronavy at the ready to protect the shipments? If not, then what happened to Earth to cause it to decay?

Are these kids sterile? Won't they be procreating down in the dark too? Is there a coven of Mars-born Martians which have different physical capabilities or characteristics?

There are caverns (lava tubes and the like) on Mars. Are these part of the tunnel system? Are their underground lakes?

So I can see that there would be a ban against AI because -- it tried to take over the solar system. It got kilt off and slap-slap, we be done with that sheet!

So, how do you get stuff mined without robots -- children! Hell, the're small, pliable, expendable, grow them in vials, get kids to raise other kids. Feed them gruel and make them like it.

They don't have rights, they're property! They're not human -- really, they're just livestock. Shit, every sentient being on Earth has a soul (it's been proven), so why should humans be treated any differently? Hell, the ones that die? Guess where they wind up... SoilentRed!

Earth? Earth's been ravaged by disease that those on Mars are immune to. That's part of what Marselarium is all about. Makes you life -- long-time, whether you want to or not.

And as far as the environment is concerned? Radiation. Marselarium tunes your body to accept radiation as energy, converting it into ATPs which your body can use as fuel.

Fantasy?

Maybe, but there are ways to turn it into science that can be, gulp, swallowed, with enough whiskey.

About Me

I'm Duncan McGeary, owner and/or operator for the last 33 years of Pegasus Books in Downtown Bend, Oregon. These days I'm writing books as well as selling them.
I'm the comic book guy. But even more so, I'm a book book guy. Books of all kinds. Big books and little books, children's and adult, fiction and non-fiction, hardback and paperback and trade paperback and graphic novels. Books with more words than pictures and books with more pictures than words. They are all part of the book world to me, and I love being surrounded by them every day.
I also have a second blog: Pegasus Books, where I list the product coming in over the next week.